Cong stoking fears among farmers: Javadekar

A day after Haryana and Punjab witnessed massive protests against the new farm laws and SAD left NDA, I&B minister Prakash Javadekar said some political parties were misleading farmers and politicising the reform move. In an interview with Vasudha Venugopal, he accused the opposition of resorting to “undemocratic methods” to register their protest in Parliament and blocking farmers from having the “choice of many options”. He also responded to questions on the drug probe into the film industry, SC’s pulling up of Sudarshan TV and the ministry rejecting the OTT self-regulation model proposed by streaming companies. Excerpts:On farmers’ protests The farmers’ agitation in some states is because some parties want to do politics out of this. The concern has always been if the MSP (minimum support price) will remain or not, and the MSP has remained untouched. There was another concern if the APMC (agricultural produce market committee) market would open or not. Today, you see the markets have opened and they started procuring paddy the way they used to. So, the MSP regime that has been operational for many years will remain the same as it was for the last 16 years. Only that the new ordinances will free the farmers from the clutches of regulations and enable them to sell at the best price. The new bills give the options to the farmer to go for contract farming, decide the lease or go with the APMC market… the window of options is open in front of him now. Even today, Congress claims Dr Manmohan Singh played a key role in liberalisation for industries. But when the same liberalisation is done to benefit farmers, they try to obstruct it.On MSP demandThere is no question of MSP not being there as the system is not changing and we are only giving more options to the farmers. The agriculture sector needs investment and wherever there is instability, investment cannot flow in. To create stability in the regulatory environment, ECA has been amended so that farmers can produce and sell without interference of the government.On SAD leaving NDAI don’t want to comment on this. They have their views on this issue. Every party has the right to make these decisions.On Punjab protests A great agricultural state like Punjab stands to gain immensely from these changes… With greater private investment, more technology, more market linkages, Punjab, whose farmers’ crops are sought after across India today, can become the export powerhouse of India in many more crops.On Oppn charge on bills’ passageThe opposition disregarded physical distancing and came to the well of the house. They threw paper balls on the deputy chairman. Harivanshji repeatedly asked them to go back to their seats and participate in their debate but they didn’t.On SC pulling up Sudarshan TVThe case is very much live, hence it isn’t appropriate to talk about it. We respect the judicial process. Censorship was removed after the Emergency in 1975. In the case of news content, we are using advisories regularly. We take note of all that is transmitted. But we can’t pre-censor print or TV news. On rejecting OTT self-regulationEvery day, I receive hundreds of complaints about some programmes on some OTT platforms with some very problematic content. There is very good content, but there is also very bad content. I had taken two meetings with industry stakeholders on how they can have a self-regulation model in place. I suggested they have a model in place of addressing grievances such as the broadcasters or the advertisers do, like the BCCC (Broadcasting Content Complaints Council) or the ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India), or even what the news broadcasters have in the form of NBSA (News Broadcasting Standards Authority). But what they have offered does not address that. It is just a token model.

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